‘I’ve been to six funerals this year’ due to youth violence, says stop and search adviser

Ken Hinds, Chair of the Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group, has said that the authorities have to do more to prevent knife crime as he has already “been to six funerals this year”, all of which were teenagers killed by violence.

Knife crime offences in the UK have risen to the highest number since 2011, with 40,147 offences in the 12 months ending in March 2018.

“Stop and search is only one of the tools that can be used but it is also how it is applied.

“That is very important because four out of five stop and searches lead to no further action.

“The interaction could be very damaging to the person on the receiving end.

“As an example, if you have gone through a bad stop and search experience and you happen to see someone who got stabbed, or you have got intelligence about who did the stabbing, you are less likely to go and give that intelligence to the police.”